My name is Amy Leeks and I am 40 years old. I have two children aged 10 and 14.
I started working in education in 2016 as a volunteer and quickly realised that teaching was my unknown passion. I was quickly offered a role as a one-to-one mentor, and the following year I was offered the opportunity to progress to a classroom TA. This provided me with the opportunity to become a teaching assistant within a mixed key stage one class with a high level of need. Within four short years I had found my passion and ran with it, after lots of conversations with my family I made the decision to become a teacher; this was the best decision I made.
In 2020 I started studying Childhood Studies with SEN at my local university, this was a full-time school-based degree which enabled me to earn; this was vital with me having a family at home. My role in school changed to HLTA and I continued this role until I completed my degree. With my degree completed, my next step was gaining QTS. Tes Institute offer this as a postgraduate apprenticeship route with, or without, a PGCE and it seemed like the most practical solution to achieve my dream.
I was very fortunate that my school did not want to lose me at the end of my degree and they have now been able to accommodate the apprenticeship route. There is government funding available which made this a more accessible route for the school.
I am now teaching a year 2 class in an infant school and have an amazing support network around me. I teach for three days a week and have a designated at-home online university day where I access Tes Learn. The work is achievable within the daily sessions and has been simple to evidence within toolkits which make my evidencing of the teacher standards’ really straight forward. The final day is spent with three hours of PPA time, a weekly hourly meeting with my mentor (although I can go to her at any time), and observations of expert colleagues. This is a great aspect of the course as you can really identify different strategies available.
The apprenticeship route with Tes Institute has been the most practical for my circumstances and has allowed me to achieve my dream while still having time for family and friends. As a company and training provider Tes have lived up to all my expectations and exceeded them. I wouldn’t hesitate to partake in another course in the future.
